DOE: Renewable grants created jobs

A $9 billion Obama administration grant program for renewable energy projects has created tens of thousands of jobs, an Energy Department report out Friday concludes.

The report comes just one week after Speaker John Boehner slammed Energy Secretary Steven Chu over the claim and challenged him to provide proof of the jobs creation.

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The report — conducted by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory — concludes that the program supported 52,000 to 75,000 construction and installation jobs on average over the three years it was in effect.

Between 43,000 to 66,000 of those were indirect jobs in the supply chain (for example, in parts manufacturing). The other roughly 9,400 of the jobs were in the design and development of renewable energy systems.

Over the next 20 to 30 years, the projected lifetime of most projects, projects from the so-called 1603 grant program will support between 5,100 and 5,500 jobs annually.

Those numbers apply only to large wind and photovoltaic projects, which made up more than 90 percent of 1603 grants. Other types of renewable energy such as geothermal, biomass and landfill gas projects were not included in the analysis.

The stimulus-funded program provided cash once a renewable energy project began generating electricity rather than a tax credit the project would receive later on. It was meant to fill a hole left in the private tax equity market by the bad economy.

Despite its popularity in the renewables sector, the program lapsed at the end of 2011, and subsequent attempts to revive the program in Congress have so far failed.

The report offers the caveat that not all of the jobs estimated can be attributed to the 1603 program alone.

“Some projects supported by a 1603 award may have progressed without the award, while others may have progressed only as a direct result of the program; therefore, the jobs and economic impact estimates can only be attributed to the total investment in the projects,” it says.

The report notes that, while job creation was listed as one goal of the program, its primary purpose “was to minimize the impact of the weakened tax equity market on renewable project development.”

“From both perspectives, the program has been a huge success,” DOE spokesman Dan Leistikow wrote in a blog post.

Through Nov. 10, 2011, the program handed out about $9 billion to 23,000 projects with 13.5 gigawatts of combined capacity. The final figures won’t be known for some time because of projects that met “safe harbor” requirements at the end of 2011 and will be completed later on.

Democrats jumped on the report to lobby Republican leadership to extend 1603 grants as well as the production tax credit, a separate subsidy that runs out for wind at the end of 2012.

“I hope you will join me in supporting revisions to the tax code that level the playing field for clean energy and better reflect America’s long-term economic and energy priorities,” Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), wrote to Boehner, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and oversight panel chairman Cliff Stearns on Friday.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:50 p.m. on April 6, 2012.